Explain Why Ocean Floor Plates Subduct Beneath Continental Plates

This is accomplished at convergent plate boundaries also known as destructive plate boundaries where one plate descends at an angle that is is subducted beneath the other.

Explain why ocean floor plates subduct beneath continental plates. When oceanic lithospheremeets continental lithosphere the continent always stays on top while the oceanic plate subducts. If the subduction occurs between two oceanic plates it is the older plate that will move underneath the younger tectonic plate. When two oceanic plates meet the older plate subducts. Geologists explain that subduction occurs to oceanic plates because they are denser and cooler than continental plates.

Oceanic lithosphere is formed hot and thin at mid ocean ridges and grows thick as more rock hardens underneath it. Because oceanic crust cools as it ages it eventually becomes denser than the underlying asthenosphere and so it has a tendency to subduct or dive under adjacent continental plates or younger sections of oceanic crust. The oceanic plate is subducted under the continental plate because oceanic crust is much more dense than continental crust. The plates collide to form a volcanic mountain because the oceanic plate will subduct under the continiental plate and melt.

Or the colliding plates may form a trench. As it moves away from the ridge it cools.